“One who is disciplined is clean”, because cleanliness is the byproduct of discipline, so to begin with, I must try to become a disciplined citizen or in other words a civilized citizen, then only I can obey my further duties to make India clean.

Very often we come to the conclusion that “India is not clean because India is poor” but on the contrary, the reality is that “India is poor because India is not clean”, it might sound little absurd and harsh but I have an explanation for this argument.

What does cleanliness represent? It represents Discipline. What are the basic fabrics of discipline? These are punctuality, sincerity, obedience. What do these traits in a human or a nation bring? It brings opulence, happiness, and prosperity, and there can be no denying the fact that we lack a great deal in these departments.

So our dream as a nation should be to build a disciplined India and everything else including cleanliness will fall in its place automatically.

Keeping the above points in mind, I on an individual level can display all the basic traits of a civilized person starting from as basic as not littering in public, dumping the garbage where it’s meant to be dumped.

I can pay my token of long due respect and appreciation to sweepers, cleaners, rag pickers of our society who are the silent guardian of a clean India, and also try to create awareness via social media about the harsh conditions in which they do their job.

I can be a true citizen of a democratic country and keep the government and Municipal Corporation on their toes by forming or being part of a pressure group concerned with sanitation and cleanliness of our country.

I can even raise the bar of my contribution by adopting a minimalistic lifestyle that can decrease my carbon footprints and which in turn can make India an ounce cleaner.

These and other millions of things I can do, only if I am ready to address not just the four walls and the roof above it as my home but my society, my city, my country and yes the entire earth as my home.

I wrote this for an essay competition organized by the government of India.

He went to places he never dreamt of going, he reached heights which he never knew exist, he had things which he never imagined he could have. It all came his way by making only one change in his life and It was the change that took quarter a century of his life to come by, it was a change that made him sweat blood, it was change the that made him cry in pain, it was the change that eventually became his high and it was the change that not only in the end but also in the beginning and middle, worth it. It was discipline that made all the difference.

Back in the day, when I was in 5th standard and I used to have a home tutor who was very strict and was the only villain in my life, to say the least. His timing was the most annoying thing about him, he used to come to my home at four o clock in the evening, when every friend of mine were busy playing cricket I used to attend my home tuition when they were counting balls and runs I was counting multiplication table when they were hitting fours and sixes I was being hit for silly mistakes and to make things worse whenever I used to plan my cricket on Sundays he used to arrive even on Sundays, now I think you can feel pity for me and understand the gravity of the situation.

Everything was fine despite all the unjust that was being laid on me I was doing okay, until one fine day my uncle gifted me a new MRF cricket Bat, now I just couldn’t resist the temptation to show off my new bat which looked ditto like Sachin’s bat to me. So next day I eloped with my bat underestimating the ramifications of my adventure. When I got back home after playing, my mom was curious and furious at the same time she asked me when did you become this brave don’t you know your tutor? he had left looking very annoyed she said and that was it, now my panic button got turned on and I was out my fantasy land then and there with my bat still resting over my shoulder.

Somehow I convinced my self that if I will complete all my home works assigned by him he would forgive me for my mischief, so I sat down that evening worked on my homework with full dedication and concentration and completed it and I even solved some maths exercise in advance to impress him.

Next day It was 3:45 pm in the clock and I was getting ready nervously for my teacher to arrive and went to my bookshelf to take out my homework notebook but wait… it was nowhere in the entire shelf to be found and now the panic monster started to grow bigger and bigger with every passing second, I am running all over my home asking everyone about the notebook covered with brown cover which has nameplate with Sachin’s photo on it but no one knew about it and then suddenly I heard a knock on the door.

I told my self that I would be honest and would take whatever comes my way, I entered my room, my tutor was sitting on the chair and I wished him good evening and sat on the bed with crossed legs, I was assuming first he will ask me about where I had been yesterday but to my surprise he straight away asked me to show my homework now I was literally crying and told him that sir, I did finish my homework but couldn’t find my notebook, now at that very moment his facial muscles and eyes got together and told me a story that is still fresh in my conscience they told me that they trust me, they told me that I might not be good at studies but I would not lie to him, he then ran his hands over my head and told me to once again go and search for it, so I wiped off my tears and went to another room where my bookshelf was and started to search for it again but I couldn’t find it then I don’t know why but I closed my eyes and said God please help me then something fell on my lap from the top of my bookshelf and yes it was my homework notebook.

I showed him my homework with tears in my eyes. Back then I didn’t realize what those tears were for but now I know it was because just in the span five minutes I had witnessed the magic of two of the most powerful things in the world, that is trust and faith.

He always had the dream of becoming the bread earner of his family, marry a beautiful Indian girl, who would take care of him and his family, his dream did come true and society looked at him as “success”. She dreamt of travelling the world, studying architecture, her dream never came true, she married him and society called her parents, a “success”

He became the man he always wanted to be and she became the women she never wanted to be.

Like always I have given myself another opportunity to make some move in my life, I have again made some promises to myself, I have again shown trust onto myself. I hope this time I don’t disappoint myself because as it looks, this is the last opportunity I have got in order to create a dignified life.

So how do I make some move? Answer to that is fairly simple, get going, don’t look back, don’t look left, don’t look right, just look ahead and run, run for your life because this time if you don’t run you will be run over by this world. Before I make a move it is really important to dig into few fundamental questions such as, why I didn’t make any move till now? what has been holding me back for so long? why am I hopeful that things will be different this time around? okay then, let’s try to find the answer to these question on by one.

Q- Why I didn’t make any move till now?

Ans- The truth is that I tried to change things many times, many times I got off to a good start but sadly every time, I failed to capitalize on to that good start and as the result, I never made any significant change. Then the question that arises now is, what is the reason behind this habit of mine? When I dig deep I can find only one answer, that is, I am too easy on myself, so in order to achieve what I have set to achieve I have to become ruthless, I have to develop an appetite for pain or in one word I have to become a masochist.

Q- What has been holding me back for so long?

Ans- To be honest there is only one thing that is holding me back from reaching the glory and that thing is nothing but me, I, myself. It might sound a little harsh but sadly this is the truth, The truth is that I am scared of hard work and I always try to find the reasons to avoid the hard work, in short, I am a lazy man of the highest degree and if I have any desire to live a dignified life I must beat my arch enemy, that is,laziness.

Q- Why am I hopeful this time?

Ans- As my previous record suggests that I have broken my promise time and again so what makes me think that this time I will adhere to my promise, this is quite a natural question to ask, and to be really honest I don’t have any answer to this question, but all I can say is that I am hopeful, and as they say, hope is a good thing may be best of the things and good things never die so will not die my hope and the expectations that I have for myself.

Conclusion.

To conclude I can say only one thing that, this will be a year when I am going to make more mistakes than I ever made because this time around I am going to try the most.